Our new upstairs

Cayden's newly finished room
Kieran's room: notice the new crown molding being installed
It will never be this clean again....

My hubby does good work, huh? I'm very proud of the work he has gotten done in the last 2 weeks. He has literally worked like a dog, sun-up to sun-down to get the upstairs ready to show. Now it's all done, now we sit back and wait.

Our Memorial Kids...

Candid shot in the coat room before the Memorial.
The girls in their best. And Kieran popping in at the last minute.silly boy..
Oliver with Carrie and Emily. He's getting so big.

My handsome men...

All dressed up for the memorial! All the guys had new suits to wear..I was so proud of them, they looked really sharp, huh?

Spring is coming...???

I'm going to try to note talk about the house...K?

So it has been really awesome to see the sun out for several days in a row and actually have temperatures above freezing! The ice is melting, snow piles are settling, and bare patches of ground/mud are appearing! Spring is near..

Only 9 weeks left of school. I am glad. Cayden has been having a few problems with controlling his behavior. I've had a few discussions with his teacher and it sounds like typical 7 year boy stuff, but not appropriate actions for schooltime. Nothing major-it's mainly him and another boy in his class that feed off of each other and work each other into little boy craziness. They distract each other from following directions, act silly standing in line, giggle during group time, things like that. A couple weeks ago, they were standing in line waiting to come inside or something, and Cayden put his hat on Mason's head. Mason did not like that, so he grabbed Cayden's hat and threw it and pushed Cayden. Mason has a short fuse, so it doesn't take much to set him off. Cayden doesn't know when to stop. So they are a volitle pair, like fireworks and gunpowder. I've had talks with Cayden to help him to remember how to act and when making the choice to be with Mason may not be the best decision. Both his teacher and I are going to request that those two boys not be in the same class next year. PHEW!

My folks are going to Oregon in April to visit M. Sue and Kirk. They are travelling out there on the train. I got to thinking...that would be a pretty fun trip for my family. Not as confining as a plane, nor as expensive. We'd get to see the countryside and watch movies, and play UNO non-stop which would make Kieran happy. Plus I'd love to see M.Sue and Kirk-I miss them. We could see the mountains and the ocean-which I know the kids would like. I wouldn't presume to stay at their house, that would be alot to take on for a few days! Well, it's an idea.

Kieran has become an UNO FREAK! He will not go to bed until he plays a game (or 2) of UNO and he wants to play more in the morning before bed, after dinner, and so on. The thing is...he is really good at it. He wins alot! Jerod and I stopped letting him win a long time ago, since he can do it all on his own. The little turkey has his own strategy and everything. Some of the rules have to be "bent" so he doesn't end up with 20 cards in his hand. We need to find another simple card game to teach him. Not sure what, but we'll figure it out. Maybe cribbage?

I got to do some evening track work last night. We got alot done-I haven't walked like that in service in a long time. Jerod had the boys, so it was just me. I got to work with Linda Boling and the Douglas's. I was a little surprised of the number of people that were not home at that time of the day. Perhaps some were hiding really well in the dark corners of their homes. Who knows?

Jerod has his 1 year follow-up appointment today for his back. On the 16th, it will be 1 year since he got all fixed up. Ironic that this week his back has been more sore than it has been in this whole time. The 12 ft sheets of rock he's been humping up the stairs at home hasn't helped that situation, I'm sure. But he said that if he isn't able to do the type of work he's been doing on our house, then he'd be of no use on the job site if and when a job would ever pop up. Even so, he's a million times better than a year ago. I am trully grateful for that.

I did pretty good not mentioning the house, huh?

The house is officially on the market..

So last Friday was a major workday here. My parents and Shane and Jessica came over to help, clean, paint and hang sheetrock. Alot got done-a big shout-out to all of the help we got. Nancy came over at 2 to take pictures to post online. The pix turned out pretty good, considering the dust in the air here. So now, Jerod has a ton more work to do upstairs, but my job is to keep the house in presentable shape. That is a round-the-clock job. We won't be able to show the house until after the 19th to give Jerod enough time to get the upstairs done, paint and all. It pains me that finally the upstairs will be really nice and we won't get to enjoy it. SIGH..whatever. At least my family is happy, healthy and Jerod and I are doing well together. That is all that matters, right? A house is just a house....

We had to bite the bullet

So at the beginning of this year I made a wish list. One of the first things I mentioned was not having to lose our house due to Jerod not having work. Well, such is not to be. After a conversation with our bank, we've been advised to try to sell our house before foreclosure proceedings start at the end of May. So we met with a couple realtors last Friday with the goal of getting our house listed by the end of this week.

So now my husband has to work like a mad-man to get the upstairs re-rocked and finished. As I type he is up there knocking off the lathe and plaster and carting it out of the house via 5 gallon buckets. It is a huge mess. Sigh....But it has to be done in order to get the house sellable. In fact, there are quite a few smaller projects that will have to be completed prior to selling, just things that I'm quite happy to overlook in living here, but a potential buyer may take issue with. For example, the grout in both bathrooms needs to be touched up and we don't have the right color grout to redo it. So then we will have to try to scrub out the current grout in order to fix it with new grout. Yuck... A couple of light switches/outlets need to have the plates re-screwed on. That is not a big deal.

Now to try to find another place to live....that just makes my head hurt. To find an affordable 3 bdrm place to rent is like striking oil in your back yard-impossible. I can only hope that a job will crop up for Jerod and we can avoid all of this moving hassle. I pray all the time for it. Maybe if a few of you who read this,,,does anyone even read this besides my dad and mom?,,,,can pray for us too, something may come our way.